If your kids are learning about blends, you will love these free printable, handy consonant blends activities. Download and print these blends clip cards to practice identifying blends in words with first grade students. Included in these consonant blends are l blends, s blends and r blends.
Scroll to the bottom to download the FREEBIE!
Consonant Blends Activities
Teaching kids about consonant blends is such an important phonics and reading skill to help kids learn to decipher sounds, words, and learn to spell. These free printable consonant blends activities teaches 1st graders segmentation, which is being able to split words into their individual speech sounds. This skill is very important for spelling.
When I teach blends, I say each word slowly to help kids hear the individual sounds. So when saying a word such as tree I slow it right down to “t – r – ee”. From there we’d practice saying the “t” and “r” a bit faster so it forms a “tr” sound.
I used to get confused about the difference between a blend and a digraph until I got an aha moment! Basically if you try to say the sounds in a digraph individually, the word doesn’t sound right. For example, saying the individual sounds of ship as “s – h – i– p” doesn’t sound like ship because “sh” is a digraph and makes only one sound – “sh”. Blends on the other hand have two sounds blended together, so if you say a blend slowly you can still hear the individual letter sounds.
Consonant Blend Activities
Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> Download <<. The pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the blends pack. Whether you are a parent looking to improve your child’s spelling and reading skills during the summer, a classroom teacher looking for an engaging literacy center activity, or a homeschooler making learning fun – this is a fun phonics activity for grade 1.
To prepare, print the pages in color so the cute clipart engages young learners. Then, cut along the dashed lines to prepare the activity. You may want to print on cardstock or laminate for durability. Now set out the stack of reading cards with a small basket with pegs (or mini clothespins).
HINT: Add a sticker on the back of each card behind the answer if you’d like the kids to be able to self-correct their answers.
Free Printable Blending Cards
- Place the basket of pegs next to the blends clip cards
- Pick up a card, say the word, sound it out and clip the beginning blend.
For example, “frog, f – r – o – g, frog begins with fr”. - Repeat until all the cards have been clipped and then check the answers.
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Blends Activities
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